Increasingly, consumers are embracing a variety usage of Quick Response (QR) codes to perform a variety of transactions. QR codes are a form of a barcode or an encrypted string of unique characters. Consumers use their smart phones, equipped with cameras, to have their mobile phones scan these codes and decrypt the contents to locate and visit a website.
For example, often a newspaper article will include a QR code that a consumer can scan with his/her smart phone. When the smart phone scans the QR code, the consumer's phone automatically brings up a browser and traverses to a specific website identified by the QR code. This provides the consumer with additional information related to the newspaper article and saves the consumer a variety of keying strokes on the smart phone to automatically visit the desired website.
In some cases, the QR code can also be used to download an application to the consumer's smart phone. So, the consumer scans a QR code from a display or from printed material (as discussed above with the newspaper example) and a mobile application is downloaded to the consumer's mobile phone.
Most, applications related to QR codes have been limited to providing consumers with additional information about goods and services, permitting consumers to enroll in programs, and downloading mobile apps to a consumer's mobile device.
However, very little has been achieved with respect to QR codes and user authentication.